At the age of 50 years, S. L. Cunningham, vestryman and Sunday School
teacher and chief usher in the Jackson Boulevard Christian Church, has
come to the conclusion that he is "just an old fool, after all."
Mr. Cunningham was arrested recently on the charge of being one of
a gang of forgers and "get-rich-quick" men who have been swindling
Chicago and New York business houses and banks during the last few
months. He says his only connection with the gang was in selling stock
until a short time ago for the National Fireproof Paint Company, one
of the concerns raided, and lending his bank account to George F.
Johnston, said to have been one of the prime movers in the gang.
Mr. Cunningham looks like a bishop. His hair is white and his
appearance distinguished. His story is an illustration of the manner
in which swindling concerns procure one or two men of weight and
respectability in a community to act as their advance agents and
establish confidence.
As he sat on the white-pillared porch of his residence, surrounded by
his wife and sympathetic neighbors and church members, his face in the
gaslight showed the marks of grief through which he has passed since
his arrest.